1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus equipped with a recording unit that performs recording on a recording medium and a transporting unit that is disposed upstream of the recording unit and transports the recording medium downstream. The invention also relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus.
Here, a liquid ejecting apparatus is not limited to recording apparatuses such as printers, copiers, and facsimile apparatuses that employ an ink jet recording head to perform recording on a recording medium by emitting ink from the recording head. The term “liquid ejecting apparatus” used above is also directed to other apparatuses that allow liquid used for an intended purpose in place of ink to adhere to a liquid-receiving medium, corresponding to a recording medium, by ejecting the liquid from a liquid ejecting head, corresponding to an ink jet recording head, towards the liquid-receiving medium.
In addition to recording heads, known examples of liquid ejecting heads include color-material ejecting heads used for forming color filters in liquid-crystal displays, electrode-material (conductive paste) ejecting heads used for forming electrodes in organic electroluminescence displays and field emission displays, bioorganic-material ejecting heads used for manufacturing biochips, and sample ejecting heads serving as precision pipettes.
2. Related Art
One example of a recording apparatus or a liquid ejecting apparatus is a printer. In a printer, a sheet transport path is provided for transporting a sheet, which is an example of a recording medium or a liquid-receiving medium. At a predetermined position on the sheet transport path is provided a sheet detector that detects passing of the leading end or trailing end of a sheet. When the passing of the leading end or trailing end of a sheet is detected, the printer performs required sheet-feeding control. JP-A-8-259037 discloses an example of a sheet detector that is equipped with a lever member provided rotatably on a sheet transport path, and a detecting unit that detects the rotational shifting of the lever member. In place of the sheet detector of a contact type disclosed in JP-A-8-259037, an optical sensor of a non-contact type that is equipped with a light-emitting portion and a light-receiving portion may also be used.
When such a non-contact optical sensor is to be used as a sheet detector, it is preferable that, in view of detection accuracy, the light-emitting portion and the light-receiving portion be properly mounted at predetermined positions and that the light-emitting portion and the light-receiving portion be disposed as close to the sheet transport path as possible. On the other hand, in a case where the sheet transport path is to be formed between two guide members, these guide members become obstacles to the placement of the optical sensor. Therefore, if the sheet transport path is to be formed between two guide members, the guide members may be provided with window holes within which the light-emitting portion and the light-receiving portion included in the optical sensor may be disposed.
However, in an assembly process of the printer, if the two guide members are first installed to form the sheet transport path therebetween and the optical sensor is subsequently mounted thereto, the workability in the mounting process of the optical sensor and the workability in a positional adjustment process of the mounted optical sensor are reduced. In addition, in the above-described structure, the fixation position of the optical sensor is distant from the sheet transport path, which is problematic in that the accuracy in the mount position of the optical sensor is reduced.